A tribute to Warwick Don

- 1 February 2015

Warwick Don will be sorely missed by New Zealand’s skeptical community. He was the last of the active founding members of the New Zealand Skeptics, and took pride in recent years to be the only one to have attended all our conferences. He served as Chair from the founding to 1992, and continued to show an interest in things scientific and skeptical well after having handed the torch on.

But Warwick will be remembered for much more than that – his example of how to be courteous while also critical has been an inspiration to many of us. He took a strong interest in science education, from school pupils looking for information on the evolution and creationism debate to supervising and supporting research and publications on a broad range of topics.

Talking with Warwick was always a stimulating experience. A devoted classical music fan and this country’s foremost authority on ants, Warwick was a great conversationalist who was interested in just about everything. Though he always had a very gentle demeanor he could, when called upon, defend a position with great intellectual vigour. Many will remember his extended debates in the letters column of Investigate Magazine with the publication’s creationist editor Ian Wishart. In 2003 the debate spilled over into the pages of the NZ Skeptic with Warwick and Ian exchanging articles. Warwick contributed several other pieces to the magazine on creationism and they were always a delight to read.

His gentle sense of humour was much appreciated. One year when the Skeptics had an auction as after-dinner entertainment, Warwick turned up with proof that man and dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time. He’d had Otago’s Geology Department rig up a fake fossil complete with a therapod print overlying a human footprint. The redoubtable Frank Haden bought the rather large item and then cheerfully donated it back to Warwick, who had taken quite a shine to his artwork. Perhaps it’ll be found in the geology department’s basement one day and startle some unsuspecting paleontologist…

An even more hidden talent occasionally revealed was Warwick’s fine voice. One year the Skeptics encouraged conference attendees to pen skeptically relevant new words to well-known tunes. The singers were struggling a bit with a hymn about homeopathy – “Dilute With Me” – until Warwick’s lovely voice cut in, carrying the “Abide with Me” music to new heights.

He will be missed.